Beware of caller, it's a computer scam

A man who barely speaks English, called my home several times today trying to convince me he was from "Windows". I told him I was not going to discuss my computer with a stranger on the phone.

His persistence continued, saying my computer was going to crash if I didn't listen to him. Finally, I told him to call when my husband came home.

In the meantime, I looked up the scam on the Internet. Microsoft warns people not to listen to the callers.

Some say they install malware on your computer, which is what I suspected. The crooks then charge a hefty fee to remove it. Others say they charge a fee after claiming to fix your computer, when there was nothing wrong with it.

Don't let strangers prey on your fears. Never give strangers access to your computer. Don't give out your information over the phone to someone who initiates a call to you. Run a Google check about anything that concerns you and see if it's a scam.

One man scammed the scammers. He actually played along with the caller while recording him and allowing the caller to have access to his computer - one that had nothing on it. It is a long call, about an hour and twenty minutes, but I had to listen and find out how far it would go.

You can get a summary of the YouTube video on Troy Hunt's Blog, Scamming the scammers – catching the virus call centre scammers red-handed.

I wasn't aware the caller from India who works for a company called Comantra, an Indian firm specialising in remote computer support, who had their Gold partner status revoked by Microsoft. The story and video was very enlightening.